April 21, 2013

Food review: Fat Cow

This, I realize, is very overdue. After I did my (casual) review, I started thinking about food and remembered my meal at Fat Cow Singapore.

I have heard many things about Fat Cow while I was in Singapore for the holidays, most of them mentioning the fusion of Japanese/Western cuisine, and their use of very, very, very good beef. Fat Cow is described as a "Japanese Steakhouse", which to me already promises good things in the form of beef in large amounts.

I am a beef person. I am very much so a beef person, despite my 3 year haitus from meat during a brief, three year vegan lifestyle.

Fat Cow offers a lunch set, so it was with a considerable amount of excitement that me and my mother made a reservation on my birthday, and here is what we ordered:

Now, it is essential to order sashimi when I see that it is under the chef's choice, or moriwase, which means the chef will select whatever fish is available on the day, and most of which will be his best cuts and freshest seafood.

This didn't disappoint, sweet raw prawn-meat, smooth fatty tuna belly and the freshest tuna and mackerel. I don't eat a lot of sashimi but I do enjoy a fresh piece of raw prawn. There is a sweetness in it that disappears when you cook it.

We ordered an additional starter while we waited for our lunch, and this was definitely high on my list of things to try.

What we had, is a zucchini blossom, holding a precious cargo of scallop and kegani, which is horsehair crabmeat. The whole thing is then battered and deep-fried, tempura-style, and served with a piece of raw honeycomb as a dipping sauce.

It was unheard of to me, or my mother, that tempura would ever be served with a sweet dipping sauce. Most of the tempura we have ever eaten in our life is served with a light soy sauce which is soaked up by the crispy batter. Our waiter advised we break up the honeycomb, which frees up the honey encased for dipping.

This was very clever, and also very delicious. It was not oily, with a delicately crispy layer and soft, sweet meat. The zucchini blossom had a bit of stem still on the end, and it tasted ... well like zucchini, crunchy and sweet. This is a must try appetizer.

As our lunch sets arrived, all I could focus on what what was in our beef bowl. My mother ordered the more Japanese bowl, of wagyu beef seared just enough to brown the surface, an onsen tamago (hot spring egg) on some steamed rice with fresh garnish of shiro-negi, which loosely translated is a white leek.

My mother enjoyed this very much. There is something satisfying about a slow-poached egg, with runny yolk dripping over beef fat and rice, combined with the crunch of the vegetable and sweet-salty soy sauce.

THIS. This is absolutely ridiculous, and so very delicious. It is also a very extravagant bowl of seared foie gras (fatty liver of a duck/goose) and wagyu beef on steamed rice.

The pieces, (I'd like to say chunks), are all equivalent in size, and almost look similar to each other in the bowl, seared in the same sauce and garnished with chives. The foie gras, when seared so well, retains its velvet texture inside, and a crisp, charred surface. The beef almost takes a backseat as it seems to give way to the chunks of foie gras.

To be honest, foie gras has a very strong flavour, but the sauce binds it all together and the two meats began to compliment each other and began a beautiful relationship. In my mouth.

Here is another shot of the bowl, a close up of their fusion - it's almost difficult to tell which pieces are foie gras or wagyu. Shovel it all up, don't think, just eat and weep into your bowl when it's finished.

I should also note, that the lunch set comes with a couple of other sides, the basic Japanese sides of miso soup, salad and a scoop of ice cream. Also included is chawanmushi, loosely translated as "steamed in a tea bowl/cup", is an egg custard with an assortment of vegetables, meat and seafood steamed in individual cups.

It's like baby food for adults. Glorious baby food for adults. Silky steamed egg, with a sweet soup, with pieces of crab and lobster meat, chunks of root vegetables like daikon (radish) and earthy mushrooms.

I also love to eat from wooden spoons.

We also ordered a side of truffle fries. I have had truffle fries a couple of times in my life, it seems to be a fad right now with many Singaporeans; everywhere i go there seems to be a version of truffle fries.

This was just regular shoe-string fries, topped with sea salt, chives, truffle oil and flakes of truffle.

That's basically it for me. Fries with what would be considered extravagant slivers of truffle on top. So I took a photo, had my fries, and laughed manically as I sent a photo to my friends and watched them cry out in envy and hunger.

I do apologize for the lack of photos regarding the other elements of the meal, but like I said this is a back-dated post. Also, I don't have the prices because it was a birthday treat from my mother.

Hello Jenny! I love you too. Thanks for the support through the years and please go to Fat Cow soon. I am sure you will like their beef, and hopefully there will be more reviews and writing coming, especially in Sept since I will be running around Perth with you guys!

love you jong! let me know if there's anything you want to see on my blog, since you like my writing i will write for you! :D